


Love Under Watch

by panther



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-24
Updated: 2015-01-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 22:01:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3225026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panther/pseuds/panther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>prompt: 'Finnick & Annie fall in love after her games. Love is the most precious thing, but for them it's also complicated and maybe even dangerous.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Under Watch

When Annie is brought to the Capitol Finnick is there with a cocky smile. He seems detached from everything. He states things as if he has memorised them and isn't really in the room. Annie hates him. Mags and Finnick take a tribute each. They never take the same gender. It helps them detach, Annie realises later. Yet when they go for training he is not like the other mentors. He doesn't disappear and leave them. If anything he is desperate to help. He works out where people will be strong and is determined they stay and work on that area. 

"Trying everything doesn't make you live. Master one thing and you have a chance."

So she picks her skill and she works on it. Disappearing. She doesn't have the stomach to kill. Sure, she picks up enough to know how but survival has to be her first priority. Telling herself she is looking out for her first and only helps Annie sleep at night. 

*

How she gets through the Games she will never be able to tell anyone. She has no idea. Her mind is never the same. How could it be? Finnick is there after it all, wrapping strong arms around her and telling her he knows and he is sorry and he knows but he is sorry. She doesn't understand what he means for several weeks until the Capitol calls. The games don't end in the arena. Maybe she should have realised that when she first met Finnick. She smiles and she dances and the Capitol make her into some sort of dream. A happy carefree lass with everything she could wish for. She is what the children could have if they win the games. Lies. All of it. 

*

At first they are rarely home together so Annie doesn't think much of Finnick but before she knows it the games have come around again and she is summoned to the Capitol. The letter's wording tells her 'no' is not an option. Mags is there with Finnick but now Annie is with them. The tributes beam at her and treat her like a hero. They want to know her secrets. They want her to tell them how to live and she doesn't know how. Even if she did, there are two when there can only ever be one. 

They look at her with sympathy and the voices in her head get worse. She doesn't know why she lived. She doesn't know how. Everything comes in flashbacks that wake her up screaming. One night when she wakes up Finnick is holding her shoulders and trying to comfort her. Annie falls into his arms and sobs and everything changes after that, really. 

Finnick helps her train the tributes the best she can and then they watch together, the three of them in a pile on the couch, as one by one they are slaughtered. Then Finnick is called to service and she to dance and Mags to do whatever she does and Annie realises the games are the best part of being a victor. It means you escape your own life. 

*

Falling in love is slow and uncertain. Finnick has to face how Annie doesn't sleep and sees axes at every turn. Annie has to face how Finnick will never be hers and only hers. He belongs to those with money. Yet when they are home in District 4 he takes her boating and finds pearls for her. She teaches him to dance and crack coconuts with one hit. They fall into one another until the Capitol comes calling again and they remember. It is easy to forget that she goes to be filmed and that his trips to the capitol are not all about getting jewels and taking pictures. 

There are always hints that say someone can make them disappear. There are always warnings. Annie's sister disappears. Finnick's father has an accident. They are warned never to be seen together. That is not part of their image and their image does not belong to them. They exist to keep Panem together. Trips to the beach become Finnick climbing rope ladders at 2am and Annie hiding her face on a train to the Capitol. 

They are everything that could destroy the other yet they can't stay away. The other is all they have to keep going at all.


End file.
